Every Friday at 1300 hours, Tally-Ho Corner’s cleverest clogs come together to solve a ‘foxer’ handcrafted by my sadistic chum and colleague, Roman. A complete ‘defoxing’ sometimes takes several days and usually involves the little grey cells of many readers. Don’t be shy. All are welcome to participate.
Below is a list of ‘33 Things Wot You Might Encounter Or Notice At Night’ (‘things’ is used in its broadest possible sense). Entries have been stripped of vowels and numbers and have had any inter-word spaces repositioned*. For example, if ‘harvest moon’ was present, it might appear as HRV STMN. ‘Insomnia’ would be NSMN.
*Hyphens are treated as spaces. Apostrophes are ignored. Occasionally repositioning a space is impossible.
1. PSNT
2. CRFW
3. BTSG NL
4. GGNSCHN
5. MGFHR LC KS
6. M D MKK
7. LFW L
8. CHM CLRC TNBT WNLCF RNNDLC FRS
9. LGHLG HT
10. SNTC LS
11. RNSB RV
12. BSTR CTVSL PPN
13. STLL TFL
14. CHRNTST YX
15. THN GSTH TGB MP
16. ZGV M PR
17. STR NWH PPRW LL
18. SL MBRPRTY
19. S NWGRMR
20. TTHFR Y
21. MTNS
22. THSP KFS TTR ND
23. SML LHRS
24. SC RLTSLS
25. Y Y
26. CLMNLNT RN
27. GNGFR MR
28. LSTR DRS
29. SMNMBLST
30. BLTNBN FR
31. ST RFSHST
32. THLND S
33. CRB BNW HTTN TMK NGBT
* * *
SOLUTIONS
Captaincabinets’ ‘33 Things Wot You Might Find In The 1980s’ missing vowels foxer:
1. RNL DY – iron lady (Phlebas)
2. ZRSJ CKT – azaria’s jacket (ylla)
3. JHNZ CHRYDL RN – john zachary delorean (ylla)
4. NNHDBN D – neon headband (Colonel_K)
5. MRL DGTC MP – emerald gate camp (Electric Dragon)
6. R NCNT RFFR – iran-contra affair (Phlebas)
7. KR – akira (ylla, Viscount)
8. TN KMN – tank man (Viscount)
9. GD BYF RWL LNDMN – goodbye, farewell, and amen (ylla)
10. RGNMCS rgnmcs – reaganomics (Viscount)
11. THSC NDD THS TR – the second death star (Viscount)
12. MRB RS – mario bros (Colonel_K)
13. VCT NFPR PYT – evacuation of pripyat (Colonel_K)
14. SPR N – ascii porn (Colonel_K)
15. SRTR STRMN DSRG LHD – sir tristram and sir galahad (Colonel_K)
16. PNRP NPC NC – pan-european picnic (Electric Dragon)
17. BNNRM bnnrm – bananarama (Viscount)
18. P RTNR GNTFRY – operation urgent fury (AFKAMC)
19. MMNLGL DSTN – emmanuel goldstein (Colonel_K)
20. NWC K – new coke (Viscount)
21. VR YL YLS KNSLS – very oily alaskan seals (Colonel_K)
22. T HLS TGL DNTD – the last golden toad (ylla, Electric Dragon)
23. RGTR PR – rogue trooper (AFKAMC)
24. JNF NDSWR KT – jane fonda’s workout (Colonel_K)
25. SNBR TS HJ NTDCL RTN- sino-british joint declaration (Viscount)
26. ZL – zuul (Viscount)
27. FM NNT HP – famine in ethiopia (ylla)
28. JRZYPP LSZK – jerzy popieluszko (Colonel_K)
29. STNMN TG – austin montego (Phlebas)
30. SB RNDSH TL – sabra and shatila (Electric Dragon)
31. RDNTB BY – radiant baby (ylla)
32. PPP YDYMS SCR – poppy day massacre (ylla)
33. RG RMR SFN LPPR N CS – roger moore’s final appearance as 007 (Viscount, Phlebas)
17. EASTERN WHIP-POOR-WILL
2 – CURFEW
10 – SANTA CLAUS
15 – THINGS THAT GO BUMP
18 – SLUMBER PARTY
4. GEGENSCHEIN
3) BATSIGNAL
4) GEGENSCHEIN
30. BELTANE BONFIRE?
27. GONG FARMER
23. SMALL HOURS
25. AYE-AYE
29. SOMNAMBULIST
8. CHEMICAL REACTION BETWEEN LUCIFERIN AND LUCIFERASE
ETA: Ignore the below, I didn’t take in “Occasionally repositioning a space is impossible.”
25. ought not to be aye-aye as the hyphen appears where the space is in the clue. That suggests one part of the answer is a word with 2 Ys in it, and the second part is a number eg. “yoyo 12”.
23 – SMALL HOURS (and not, as I first thought, small horse)
29. SOMNAMBULIST – a sleep-walker
28. LAST ORDERS – time, gentlemen, please
5. MUG OF HORLICKS
15) THINGS THAT GO BUMP 🙂
33) CARRIBEAN WHITE TENT-MAKING BAT
26 – COLEMAN LANTERN
6. MADAM KOI KOI – sub-Saharan African ghost
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madam_Koi_Koi
31) STARFISH SITE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_site
Amazingly, I’d never heard of these, despite being aware of Operation Bertram in Egypt, along similar lines.
I figured out ‘starfish’ and looked up the rest, to be fair. But I’ve heard of the thing (for Glasgow/Clydebank, I think), although I didn’t know the name!
22. THE SPOOK OF ST. TROND
7. ELF OWL
24. SCARLET SAILS – event in St. Petersburg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarlet_Sails_(tradition)
7. ELF OWL
33. CARIBBEAN WHITE TENT-MAKING BAT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honduran_white_bat
14. ACHERONTIA STYX
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acherontia_styx
21) MATINS? (the old-fashioned monastery kind)
21. MATINS ? – first Catholic prayers of the day?
22) TOOTH FAIRY
16 – ZG VAMPIR – Wehrmacht infrared device
Strictly “ZG 1229 Vampir” – two spaces means three words
19) SNOW GROOMER?
14 tantalisingly appears to contain CHARON/ACHERON and STYX, but I can’t make any sense out of it if so!
Charon and Styx are both moons of Pluto – damn that extra T.
14. ACHERONTIA STYX (I posted earlier but my comment was put in moderation, probably too many links)
9) LEIGH LIGHT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Light
Remaining:
1. PSNT
11. RNSB RV
12. BSTR CTVSL PPN
13. STLL TFL
14. CHRNTST YX
32. THLND S
12) something REACTIVE something?
Seems like my night in the sleep clinic has come in useful
12 – OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA
I hope they were able to sort you out!
11. ORION’S something that’s not a belt ?
32. THE LEONIDS ? – meteorites appearing to come from the constellation Leo
14. CHARON and STYX are moons of Pluto, but I can’t quite work out where the T fits in
EDIT: Damn me for not reading the comments above
Electric Dragon worked it out ^^^
For 13, SATELLITE fits in at the start, and is suitable night-themed. But what next – FAIL? FUEL?
maybe missing an R at the end and it ought to be SATELLITE FLARE ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare
Correct! Roman has been fired. Into space.
Is he back to writing self-help books for Putnam?
1. is perhaps PEASANT? Known for often working in the wee hours of the morning…
1. PESANTA – Catalan Mare, most commonly a dog that sits on your chest restricting breathing and producing unpleasant dreams.
11. RNSB RV
is left
Re: 11.
Colonel K: URANUS?
Roman (applauding sarcastically): BRAaaa…VO!